Back to School in Russia

Shopping for school supplies in Russia is totally more fun than shopping for such things in the US. Why? Russians have much, much cooler school supplies.

Take notebooks for an example. Most of the notebooks here have graph paper in them instead of being ruled. I think I dig it. Also, the notebooks are just niftier. I bought a large, hardbacked one with a faux leather cover. It has the imperial double-headed eagle holding a pen instead of a scepter embossed in silver on the cover. ‘Tis quite groovy. But the average notebook is a small affair, lightweight, about the size of a composition book in the US. And they have tons and tons of different, usually rather funny covers. Remember the folders with the pictures from elementary school – the one’s that were “cool.” Oh yes, that’s the type of covers we’re talking about.

Folders, on the other hand, are plain, off-white numbers. They cost about 6 rubles each. (At 25 rubles to the dollar, that’s a bit over 20 cents.) You place your papers in the folder, and then fold the flaps around them, and tie it with a bit of cloth. All of them are stamped with Папка для бумаг. (Folder for papers.) However, I haven’t seen any folders for anything else. Or, you could splurge and drop some more rubles on translucent plastic folders, but then you wouldn’t have somewhat amusing Russian writing on your folder, would you? (I’m thinking of returning to the US with a ton of папки для бумаг.

Have I mentioned recently how much I detest Microsoft Word?